51 pages • 1-hour read
Behind the Net
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Symbols & Motifs
Daisy
Daisy, the stray dog that Jamie adopts, functions as a secondary and supporting character in the novel. She also serves as a plot device to bring Jamie and Pippa together and provides a reason for them to spend time getting to know one another. His decision to adopt and care for the dog is the inciting incident that makes Jamie agree to have a personal assistant, thus providing the impetus for Pippa to enter his life. This foreshadows Jamie’s softening heart and his ability to care for more than just hockey and his mother. As such, Daisy becomes a symbol of Jamie’s ability to open his heart to new loves.
Initially, his hesitation to name the dog mirrors Jamie’s reluctance to form new attachments as he fears he doesn’t have time or energy to spare. Pippa is the one who names the dog, illustrating Pippa’s ease with demonstrating affection. Adopting the dog is a precursor to Jamie’s inviting Pippa to live with him, his first step toward inviting someone besides his mother into his life. After adopting the dog, Jamie realizes that he can admit another entity into his life and in fact, wants that connection. Jamie reaches out to Pippa for similar reasons; he sees her as lost and wants to help take care of her. The image of Pippa and Daisy together in his apartment, an image he entertains when he extends this invitation, signals the love, affection, and domestic companionship that Jamie yearns for without being able to articulate it. Over the course of the novel, as Jamie and Pippa’s relationship strengthens, Daisy continues to represent the link of affection between the protagonists and Jamie’s newly recognized ability to love and care for another.
Pippa’s Guitar
Pippa’s musical career and her ambitions about being a performer help define her character arc in the novel, even as her two dreams and passions—for Jamie and for music—are intertwined. Pippa’s first guitar, one she bought for herself, symbolizes her past, her time spent with Zach, and their history together, which supported Zach’s ambitions but not Pippa’s. After Zach breaks up with her, Pippa’s reluctance to play her guitar is both a result of the embarrassment she felt when Zach laughed at her song and an illustration of how her confidence in herself and her worth is shattered. At this low point, when she sees her dream guitar in the window of the music shop, it represents a goal she believes is unattainable for her. She admires every detail and thinks, “It’s beyond beautiful” (63), but it isn’t something she can envision having in her current life.
When Jamie buys Pippa her dream guitar, it is evidence of his support of her musical ambitions and a symbol of his belief in her. When she jokes that the guitar is her soulmate, Pippa is also hinting at her connection with Jamie, as the guitar becomes a link between them. She has already written her album of music, having reclaimed her old self and her youthful dreams and detached them from the disappointment associated with Zach. The new guitar represents a fresh start, like her unfolding relationship with Jamie, along with new possibilities, like the chance to record with Ivy Matthews. The guitar is a symbol not only for Pippa’s refocusing on her musical ambitions but also evidence that Jamie is the right companion for her, one who will help her achieve all her dreams.
The Filthy Flamingo
The Filthy Flamingo, the dive bar for which the hockey team develops an affection, functions as a motif throughout the story as a place of connection and belonging. In its first appearance, the Flamingo represents the tenuous connection Jamie has with the team and the way he’s hoping to impress Coach Ward. Ward introduces Jamie to the place for a talk about his role on the team. Jordan the bartender’s hostility to hockey echoes how Jamie, at this point in the novel, feels uncertain about his place in the world. When he goes to the Flamingo with the rest of the team and Pippa, Jamie signals his growing comfort at creating these new friendships and connections.
As the novel continues, the Flamingo represents a way for Pippa to express herself when Jamie encourages her to sing. The bar provides a venue for Pippa to realize anew how much she loves performing and how much she wants to pursue this career. The Filthy Flamingo, following the scene of Pippa’s musical performance, also becomes the setting for Jamie and Pippa’s first kiss, confirming its role in the novel as providing new connections and opportunities for both of them. In the last chapter of the book, Pippa performs again at the Filthy Flamingo when she shows her parents how much performing music means to her. The bar develops as a place that brings the characters together, offering them a space of entertainment, affirmation, and belonging.
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